


the ballad of the icon

by Dinua



Category: Doom (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Don't @ Me, Gen, so is valen for that matter, valen's son is being slept on as a character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28111371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dinua/pseuds/Dinua
Summary: Valen's son had died young; a soldier slaughtered on the battlefield. Mourned by his father, yet laid to rest.It should've stayed that way.(Or, my take on the Betrayer's son, through his death as a human to his death as the Icon of Sin.)
Kudos: 9





	the ballad of the icon

Valen’s son died at the young ripe age of 26, to the civil war that raged throughout the ranks of the Night Sentinels. It had reached its peak, all thanks to Argent Energy and the rather diabolical processes behind its creation. Valen and his son had sided with the Slayer against the Maykrs, who had blindsided them and the rest of the Argenta for so long.

He died with his eyes wide open, stabbed through the chest with a spear forged with that infernal energy, with his blood dripping down onto the barren battlefield. As he collapsed onto the ground, he knew that his father would grieve over him, a flower plucked from its stem far too early, not even able to start a family. Yet, he knew that his brothers-in-arms would keep fighting, for there was a war to be won, and the actions of the demons and the Maykrs were certainly unforgivable.

\---

He was right about his father mourning his death.

Vasthel was his only son, his only family left after his significant other had passed away in combat. But where one’s grief would end, for Valen, it got worse. Nightmares appeared in his mind and became prominent, visions of his son suffering in the depths of Nekroval. Vasthel’s organs and limbs were damaged, maimed, and torn apart, again and again, for the production of Argent Energy. Valen had tried to push away these terrors to the back of his mind, and it had worked, at first. However, over time, they had become inescapable, for these hallucinations began haunting him in broad daylight, popping up like demented daisies. It drove him  _ mad. _

The Hell Priests knew of this, in fact, they had orchestrated his fall to insanity, so once Valen’s willpower crumbled and he threw himself at their knees, they were happy to oblige.

“Give us the keys to the Sepulcher of Elements,” Deag Grav ordered, “then  _ perhaps _ that son of yours will be dead no longer.”

Valen obliged. That night, the sacred Wraiths went missing, and the man didn’t say a word about it to anyone. With the Wraiths’ energy now being under its control, Hell’s armies were strengthened, tipping the war to their favor. On the Night Sentinels’ final expedition into hell, the Priests launched their trap, leaving the warriors to fend for themselves in Hell. 

One by one, the Sentinels were picked off, each one dying glorious and honorable deaths, leaving behind only two. One was the Slayer, once considered an outsider in the ranks of the Night Sentinels, now a rage-filled demigod, ripping and tearing whatever demon got in his way. The other was Valen, now known throughout the remains of Argent D’nur as the Betrayer, now bearing the weight and the sins of his actions.

Valen had lumbered his body to a cliff of brimstone, overlooking the shores of Hell as it burned. Standing on the edge was Deag Grav, and as much as Valen wanted to strangle him, he knew he could do nothing. The Hell Priests’ souls were guarded, as long as he didn’t have the medallions of their respective guardians, they were invulnerable. Valen grimaced as the corrupted cleric began to speak.

“About that deal with your son…”

\---

Vasthel awoke, feeling that something was wrong. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be alive, for starters. He couldn’t move any of his limbs either; his body appeared to move on its own. The area around him was infernal, he was no longer in the lands of Argent D’nur anymore. As his body rose from the ground, he looked down and saw that something, no,  _ everything _ was terribly wrong. 

He was a demon. Judging from the size, he was a Titan, one of the strongest in Hell’s armies. He tried to open his mouth to yell, to  _ scream _ at his monstrous transformation, but no sound came out. Instead, Vasthel’s head was forced to look up, looking straight at a cliff and the two people on top of it. One was one of the Hell Priests, Deag Grav, who for sure was the man responsible for his condition. The other man was his father, Valen, staring blankly at him, trembling in fear.    
  
He tried to shout to his father, that he was aware, he was conscious, he was  _ alive, _ but the only thing that left his maw was a roar towards the crimson sky.

\---

Centuries passed. His body eventually laid dormant in the ruins of his former nation. His twisted, horned head sat there, as if watching over the demons who walked on the hellish ground. It was an isolated existence, cut off from the rest of the world.

But to say that he was truly  _ alone _ would be wrong. Stuck in his head was a demonic voice, calling himself the Icon of Sin, taunting and mocking him in his agonized state. Through the demon, Vasthel had learned the source of his predicament, the deal with Hell his father had made, which led to his body becoming the Icon of Sin’s vessel. He was shocked and disappointed in his father, to say the least. But yet, he couldn’t blame him, he was his son, after all.

As time passed, day by day, year by year, Vasthel grew weary, homesick, and  _ tired. _ Every time the Icon of Sin spoke, with its voice echoing in his mind, he wanted to retreat to the deepest crevices of his soul, or what’s left of it, anyway. And yet, he could not escape the demon’s words, no matter how harsh they were.   
  
He just wanted to disappear.

\---

Heavy footsteps echoed throughout the earth as the Icon walked, crushing everything in his path. The Khan Maykr had planned for him to be under her control, to use him as a pawn to claim yet another world. However, The Slayer had put a stop to her schemes, stabbing Vasthel’s heart with Valen’s knife and later killing the haughty ‘angel’. 

As Vasthel’s body moved through the foreign ground, he couldn’t help but think that he might’ve liked it here when he was alive. 

The movement came to a stop as he stared down at the man, the Outsider of Argent D’nur, who fought through all of Hell. Vasthel was surprised to see him alive, after so many years. But then again, ever since the Hellwalker joined the ranks of the Night Sentinels, he was always determined to strike back against the infernal.

Two Titans stand, ready for battle. Both were once mortal men, turned into something  _ more _ by forces beyond their control. One, fueled by perpetual fury, became the bane of all of Hell. The other, a pawn to another’s plans, helpless as he watched his kingdom die and rot.

The Doom Slayer sought vengeance and justice for everything Hell had taken, while the Icon of Sin was willing to doom everything to Hell.

Vasthel only wished for someone to end his misery.

\---

_ It had all gone silent. _

The boy opened his eyes, waking up to an empty void. A pain in his forehead reminded him of what went down only moments earlier. The Slayer had ended the fight stabbing his Crucible, for that was the only way to put down a Titan. The Icon of Sin was finally dead. But, looking around him, he didn’t seem to be anywhere he recognized. He wasn’t back at the gates of Nekroval, but he certainly wasn’t in Urdak, the paradise the Maykrs had promised the Night Sentinels before they betrayed them. Perhaps this afterlife of nothingness was a sort of middle ground of some sort between the two.   
  
_ Some kind of purgatory, then. _   
  
Tucking his limbs into his body, he floated in the space, finding it to be strangely calming. It was... quiet. There was no Icon ringing throughout his head, he wasn’t forced to look at his demonic body as it unleashed havoc, it was simply tranquil here. For the first time in eons, he was at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> really though, i really hoped we could see more of the Betrayer in the DLCs, he simply shows up for one cutscene in the main game and that's it.
> 
> still glad we got the intern tho, he's babey.


End file.
